I'm a 10th grader attending Stone Bridge High School. I play paintball for Hogback Army and I run the soundboard for my high school's State Champion drama department. Along with being an avid pro wrestling fan, I spend an unhealthy amount of time on Twitter (@TheSammer88). My personal goal is to work with the #BowTieBoys and teachers everywhere to build an education system that greatly values student voice and student choice.

Friday, March 10, 2017

Responding with Humanity

“It’s not the end of the world
if they’re doing something a little different” (Hochkeppel).

At the time that I started writing
this post out, I was preparing for a State competition with the
director/teacher/role model that I intended to highlight. That wasn’t really a
necessary thought to share, but I found it funny. Throughout the school, he is
widely recognizable as the sometimes eccentric member of the fine arts wing. Although his
methods can be unorthodox, he has managed to capture the hearts of students of
past, present, and even future.

I have been through a good amount
of classes and productions with him at this point in time. Regardless of the
ever-changing class and rehearsal format, one aspect of my interactions with
Mr. Hochkeppel have remained constant; his philosophy towards teaching. Central
in his pedagogy is the idea that students should have as much freedom as
possible. The man affectionately known as H, believes very strongly that when
students are given the chance to succeed, they will.

Over the course of a couple weeks,
I held interviews with H in order to paint a decent picture of how he thinks.
The quotes Mr. Hochkeppel shared with me in our interviews were pretty
indicative of the way he runs class. I hope that by the end of this article it is
clear why he is so impactful and so widely beloved.

“All these kids up here, they
have the ability and they have the potential. Now all they need is to be given
the opportunity" (Hochkeppel).

At my high school, this quote is
synonymous with H. It can be found all over our drama department as well as a
giant sign in the Black Box (the theater classroom). This mantra is very much
one he lives and teaches by.

Outside of actually directing,
students run every aspect of the theater department. We design and build the
set, advertise the show, make the costumes, run the lights and sound,
choreograph, and search for props (along with any left out aspects of theater).
H has expectations and we know we have to meet them. There is no need for him
to hold our hand throughout the journey. Not only does it harness students’
need for independence, it builds a mutual trust between the two parties. Mr.
Hochkeppel professes his trust of us and backs it up with giving us space to
try new things. In turn, our trust in him grows because it is ingrained in us
that he is on our side. He believes “the best way to make high quality work
when you have a band of… people is give them as much freedom as possible”
(Hochkeppel). If H were to run the department in an authoritarian manner
instead of one built on a symbiotic relationship, dissension would fester. Our
shows would not nearly be as successful, his classes would not retain a lot of
the curriculum taught to them, and frankly fewer students would want to join.

Effective teaching is all about
establishing an environment similar to this. It is necessary for students to
have freedom to make choices and mistakes on their own and to experience the
consequences of each.

“Unfortunately, I think we
graduate people who are not ready to take on the world… because we’ve kept them,
artificially, from the world” (Hochkeppel).

Assignments that students are
forced to complete often have no authenticity behind them. Most of the time,
they would have very little value outside the walls of the school building. Instead
of doling out worksheets “let’s create as real a world as we can imagine”
(Hochkeppel) for students. “School doesn’t work for some great percentage of
people, if working means you come out… a lot smarter and ready to take on the
world” (Hochkeppel) and a lot of that stems from a lack of real world
application. For kids, it’s not unusual to be faced with daily textbook
readings and passionless reading response questions. The workplace just assigns
adults projects that need to get done. If school is supposed to mirror future
occupational labor, then the framework of assignments needs to shift.

One method for educators to
potentially assuage this issue is to consider the real purpose of assigned
work. Work students are completing should not be used as a distraction tool. If
something is not directly evolving a student’s comprehension it needs to be
axed. Even “behavior problems… [are] because you have intelligent people who
are noticing they’re being asked to do something senseless” (Hochkeppel). A
simple fix would be to get the ‘senseless’ out of school. Busy work, not only annihilates
any positive rapport that’s been built; it creates a blurry image of what
learning actually looks like. The latter is a potentially more serious issue.

“I don’t believe in tests beyond
doing. The paper can fool you. You can get all A’s and not know how to do
anything” (Hochkeppel).

Since my freshman year, I’ve had
three classes with Mr. Hochkeppel as the teacher; Technical Theater, Public
Speaking, and Creative Writing. All of them were different in subject matter,
but were run with the same goal in mind: “getting students to ‘do’”
(Hochkeppel). At this point, it is a given that paper and pencil tests do not
always fully evaluate a student’s knowledge. Students may understand the
material, but may have extremely bad test-taking anxiety. Due to the nature of
assessments like these, some may still show signs of comprehension despite not
actually knowing much about the topic.

When I asked H about his education
background, he brought up how he fared in school. While he excelled at
completing quizzes, he felt under-prepared heading into the professional world.
H noted that “in real life, there aren’t a bunch of tests you have to pass.
Nobody cares about what you can do on paper” (Hochkeppel). He is absolutely
right too. If a surgeon scores well on every test they take in medical school,
but then does not know how to safely complete a surgery, there will be very
large ramifications. Mr. Hochkeppel is very outspoken that “rather than just
giving students some Latin terms to teach persuasion… we should [have]
students… persuade” (Hochkeppel). The best way to learn is to do. Regurgitating
phrases onto a worksheet doesn’t hit the curriculum home a majority of the
time. Just like in my history class [insert shameless plug for my blog post
last week], without an opportunity to take off the “thinking cap” and put on
the “doing cap,” information won’t stick as often.

Other schools in our area have
Technical Theater classes, but very few get as much accomplished as Mr.
Hochkeppel’s do. Instead of wasting time on going over how one might build a
set, his students just jump right in. Our learning mostly occurred through
experience. If we built a faulty set piece, we inspected it and, with H’s help,
found ways to ensure it wouldn’t happen again. The importance of “as early as
possible… get[ting] kids judging: was this a good move or a bad move?”
(Hochkeppel) is high because it grows their independence. It allows students to
learn from their own mistakes, in real time, and figure out how best to solve
issues proactively. In Public Speaking, in the first semester of my sophomore
year, we didn’t discuss the theory of good public speaking. The class jumped
right in and started performing, later coming together for constructive
criticism. Currently, I’m in his Creative Writing class. On the first day of
class, we already had an assignment. He explained that had we come together to
converse about how to write creatively (instead of actually writing),
nothing would ever get completed. Art is too subjective for there to be one,
correct formula to writing. Not to mention, the word ‘formula’ and ‘writing’
shouldn’t ever be near each other in a sentence. Writing has a mind of its own and
can take whatever form the author chooses. H understands his “version of what
you gotta know is silly” (Hochkeppel) to everyone except for him. The way he
writes is completely valid, but it may not make sense for me to adopt all of
his personal guidelines. To me, that idea is crucial to a classroom’s success.

It is treasonous to the subject of
English to pretend writing only fits one mold. Writing is about expressing what
writers need to express. Educators that teach to check off boxes rather than
let ideas flow free are leading their students to become bland and
inexpressive. Mr. Hochkeppel agrees with that sentiment. He even goes as far as
saying the current public education system is destined to follow that path more
than often.

“Do the citizens belong to the
state? I kind of think that’s the implication of the [school structure]” (Hochkeppel).

Individuality is often suppressed
by the public education system. It is very true that “some go through school
damaged by the continued assault on personal value” (Hochkeppel). In most of my
English classes, when we analyze the books we read, our teacher stands at the
front of the room and essentially tells us how we should interpret it. A couple
of my peers have been shot down, in front of the rest of the class, because
they had an alternative interpretation. I strongly agreed with H when he said,
“I don’t think there should be some big apparatus telling students what the
real story is” (Hochkeppel). That is transferrable to any subject. There are
multiple sides to history. There are conflicting theories in science. There are
abundant ways students can experience a book. “If we [break down] all the facts
in the average SOL… you could say ‘that’s a decent fact to know’ but it’s not
like you need to know that… for a good life” (Hochkeppel) and student rapport
diminishes when teachers value trivia over true comprehension. There’s a stark
difference between teaching disjointed facts and actually ingraining
information in a student’s brain.

One of the biggest aspects of my
Creative Writing class is analyzing each other’s work, for the purpose of
understanding clear author’s purpose. Just because classmates differ in
opinions doesn’t mean they need to come to a consensus. Disagreements are a
very real part of life. Teachers should “trust people not to be good, but…
trust people to look out for their own interests and to do what they see is
right” (Hochkeppel). Who are teachers to tell us how we see the world is
incorrect?

Mentally make a list of all the
great thinkers of our world’s time. Albert Einstein. Sigmund Freud. Thomas
Edison. Galileo. Some might argue we no longer have people like them in
America. H vociferously disagreed:

“We look at [great thinkers] and
say, ‘Wow why don’t we have smart people like [them] anymore?’ The fact is, we
do. We have just as smart people… but we have funneled them through a system…
which takes away… autonomy and… personal judgement” (Hochkeppel).

Rather than allowing students to
find themselves, the current structure attempts to confine them to one way of
thinking. The goal of school is to help students grow into fully independent
adults. “We train kids to be afraid to do anything without an adult’s say so”
(Hochkeppel) and when that is instilled in us, we are destined to fail in the
outside world. If when we’re younger, we are not allowed to speak our minds or
form our own opinions, we never will. That would be borderline apocalyptic for
the future.

“Kids are made to feel like crap
for not being good enough for these tests. Even though those tests aren’t an
objective yard stick to measure value, we treat them that way” (Hochkeppel).

Students respond to humanity, more
so than we do to hard data. On our first day of grade school, numbers become
attached to us. Grades, lunch numbers, student IDs, class numbers – every
aspect of our very existence is quantified. All the time, I start off the
school year taking a ‘how do you learn’ quiz. Very few, if any, of my teachers
follow through and adjust to the way I learn. We follow the same formulaic
agenda:

Guided Notes

Worksheet

Discuss as a class

Test

It doesn’t matter if you’re an
auditory learner, a visual learner, a kinesthetic learner, or a completely
different learner; you’re doing the same thing as everyone else.

The opposite is also very much
true. I’ve had teachers in the past who are overly reliant on test scores
(specifically reading levels) and use them to divide classes into ‘smart’ kids
and ‘slow’ kids. “It’s a bit of a mania when the end result is not better
teaching, but a kind of non responsive way of thinking,” (Hochkeppel) H pointed
out, when I asked about his thoughts on the sudden push for the “huge push
nationally… for… data” (Hochkeppel). At this point it should be very clear that
no two students think, work, or act the same, yet we get assessed in a
one-size-fits-all fashion.

Most times it seems that the system
isn’t “meant to help every kid achieve their dream but rather as a sorting
mechanism” (Hochkeppel). Data can certainly be a useful tool, but when it’s
turned into the deciding factor of a child’s intelligence, it becomes
detrimental to school in general. Over my eleven years in the American public
school system so far, I’ve been labeled the ‘smart’ kid and the ‘slow’ kid.
Both labels hurt me, personally. When I’m painted as belonging in the ‘smart’
group, I’m expected to know every answer when called on. If I don’t, I get a
disapproving look from the teacher and maybe a discussion after class. When I’m
described as one of the ‘slow’ kids, I’m told I need to put forth more effort –
regardless of the work ethic I show. Mr. Hochkeppel believes “those numbers
exist not to help the students to learn, but to help the powers that be, pick
students and divide them [into who’s] valuable and… not” (Hochkeppel). Granted,
I may not have the experience of graduate school or teaching a class of
students, but I certainly have been led to believe that too. It’s very clear
which students are teachers favorites and which ones aren’t when data becomes a
focal point of the class.

Before I finish up, I'd like to quickly congratulate our drama department (run by Mr. Hochkeppel) on winning the state championship in Virginia's one act competition! It was a great experience and it is certainly deserving after all the work our cast and crew did. There is zero chance we could have accomplished this without H at the helm. He has been a role model of mine for the past two years and I'm honored to have the privilege of working with and learning from him for two more upcoming years.

Thank you so much for reading this week’s edition of my blog! I would love to hear any thoughts (in agreement or opposition), any suggestions you have, or any questions you may have. I will continue to update this on Fridays as the year progresses. You can follow me on Twitter @TheSammer88 for live updates from me. The hashtag #BowTieBoys has been compiling my thoughts and my partners’ thoughts, so be sure to check that out if you want to hear more from us.

“You can’t keep… people down if
they’re free, but you can certainly affect them greatly by taking twelve years
of their life and making them subservient, obedient, and non free thinkers”
(Hochkeppel).

1 comment:

Sam,An amazing and thoughtful post. I added this sentence to my writer's notebook so I could think about it some more . . ."A simple fix would be to get the ‘senseless’ out of school." I have to agree. Some days "sense" and "school" are not synonymous! Mr. H's views are quite sound.

This made me sad . . ."It’s very clear which students are teachers favorites and which ones aren’t when data becomes a focal point of the class." All students deserve recognition for their individuality . . and not because of a "number".

And yes, congratulations on winning the state One Act competition. What a real life honor! I'm guessing that H's students have several "wins" to date!

As always, thanks for making me think about similarities in my experiences, past and present! Some thought-provoking and wise ideas included here! :-)

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Sam Fremin

Mission Statement

Education thrives on innovation, whether it be in a student's work, in a teacher's lesson plan, or in the curriculum laid out by lawmakers. The classroom is a space for growth, but it is impossible if ideas remain linear.

One of my favorite things to do is watch live theater. It's always changing - no two shows are ever the same. This is because no two crowds are the same. An actor's job is to connect with the crowd and get them to believe whatever story is being told. With different audiences, the cast must experiment in order to find what works best and then push forward with it. If actors were to fall into a pattern, only some audiences would leave wanting to return.

The same ideology is something that would positively impact classrooms everywhere. No class of students is the same. No two students are the same. If they are treated as such, very few are likely to get the full experience school should offer. When classrooms fall into the same structure and fail to add new components, they are destined to allow kids to fall to the wayside.